Fun with work

[klwilliams]

At work, we have a division budget for morale events (sometimes called "team building events"). The management team discussed breaking up the budget among all the sub-teams and using it for small group events, or using the whole thing for a big, division-wide event. We opted for the big event.

On Wednesday, everyone in my division at work got on a bus. No one told us where we were going, but we had packed an overnight bag and dressed in layers (our only instructions). We were dropped off at the Giant's stadium in San Francisco, where we had a hotdog for lunch, then went on a short tour. We then watched a video, which was of one of the players starting to talk about the stadium, then stop suddenly and say, "But you don't care about the stadium. You want to know what you're doing today."

We went on a two day cross between a scavenger hunt and "The Amazing Race", which included travelling in small teams from the stadium to Fisherman's Wharf, where we then took a speedboat across the Bay to Pier 8, then a cable car to Chinatown (where we made fortune cookies in a fortune cookie shop), then walked to the top of Coit Tower, then went to our hotel. Along the way we took Polaroids of specific things, including the Transamerica building, the Fisherman's Wharf sign, and so on. Wednesday night, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The next day we had breakfast at Boudin's (a famous sourdough bread company), then went to Yerba Buena Gardens and bowled, took the train down the peninsula to the Malibu Grand Prix, where we raced small race cars, then did a few other odds and ends before going back to our building at work. All along the way we had opportunities for each team to earn points by doing various things, and at the end, the team with the most points won. Two teams tied for first (my team came in sixth out of nine), and both teams got Zunes for prizes. (Our general manager was heard to whimper, "My budget...." when the tie was announced.) It was amazingly fun.

Comments

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

What a cool thing for a company to do!

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Despite your last sentence, I can't quite tell if you had a good time and are being descriptive-yet-reserved in your description, or if you had an 'eh, whatever' time and are just being polite.

As a rule, I rarely enjoy these types of surprise-fun company events. My feeling is that the company is paying me to -- among other things -- be civil towards my co-workers, not to be friends with them. If friendships develop, *great* -- just don't let management try to force it.

Maybe I'm just projecting my own feelings on the subject.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

How fun!

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Waaaa! The biggest fun event my school district ever has is a Christmas party once a year.... and we pick up the tab ourselves.

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

I'd love to go all around the bay doing neat stuff like that. My only question is:

Did they move all your deadlines back two days to make up for the time out of the office?

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a hoot and a half! You guys had better be happy for awhile now. LOL

[darcyjavanne.livejournal.com]

Okay, I want your job for the team-building events. You can have it the rest of the time! ;-)

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Once, a very long time ago, my then company took our branch to Pebble Beach for golfing and a generally riotous weekend. I got a room with a fireplace which was wonderful. Mostly tho I hated team building excercises which most were picnics and hearty sports type things.

You outing sounds like it was fun!